Geoffrey Lean is Britain's longest-serving environmental correspondent, having pioneered reporting on the subject almost 40 years ago.

Campaigning prince fights for the rural poor shunned by ministers

It was the morning of the 1992 general election and I was having breakfast for the first – and, let me hasten to say, the only – time with the Prince of Wales. Naturally, I couldn't help asking him how he would vote, if he could.

No dice. The subject changed rapidly to his latest campaign. In truth, I forget exactly what he said. But I do remember realising, as he spoke of how he had to work up courage before his public interventions, that he did not enjoy making them.